James Caffrey, Principal Cyber Security Specialist, heads up the Capacity Building Team in the National Cyber Security Centre, hosted in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Working on cybersecurity since 2012, he has since led on policy development work with the NIS Directive and more recently with EU negotiations on the forthcoming NIS2 Directive. After 3 years in Brussels with the European Commission on cybersecurity policy development, he returned in 2020 to assist with coordination and implementation of the National Cyber Security Strategy 2019-2024. In that regard he was focused on delivery of skills development, gender diversity, enterprise engagement and realisation of research and educational initiatives, before taking up his current role in September 2022. In his current role, he has successfully secured EU funding for the National Cybersecurity Co-ordination and Development Centre project and is presently leading in the development of a national strategy for the development of the cybersecurity industry.
Mr. Caffrey holds a Master’s of Science in Forensic Computing and Cyber Crime Investigation from University College Dublin. He is also represents Ireland on the Governing Board of the European Cybersecurity Industrial Technology and Research, Competence Centre.